Sunday, July 7, 2013

In Praise of Cartoons

I've recently seen a couple of movies that make this a fit subject for a blog post. Cartoons.

To begin with, cartoons aren't just kid stuff. In fact, the term "cartoon" derives from the fine art world where it refers to a full-sized, preliminary drawing for a work that is to be rendered as a fresco, a technique that doesn't allow much room for error. The cartoon would then have its final lines pricked, then the perforated drawing would be affixed to the wall that was to be frescoed and a bag of soot would be patted (actually called "pounced," which is cooler) over the cartoon - tah-dah! Now the artist has an outline to follow during the fresco process. Therefore, show some respect to Bugs Bunny, whose lineage can be directly traced back to da Vinci. (Sort of.)

Anyway - despite this lofty history, cartoons are generally seen as something for children to enjoy. Oh, sure, there are some cartoons that are meant for grown-ups and it's generally accepted practice to fling a bone or two to the grown-ups in the audience, but cartoons are for kids.

Even if you accept that, that doesn't mean cartoons shouldn't be of good quality. Tolkien, among others, wrote quite a bit on the subject of children's literature being all too often shuffled off to the nursery as being too worn-out for adults, but "it'll do" for the kiddies. He hated that attitude and good on him, I say. However, many animated movies forget this and are content to just churn out do-nothing films that are instantly forgettable in terms of both story and art.

Thank heavens for the exceptions.

Recently, I sat down and watched a marvelous film by Japan's master animatorHayao Miyazaki. The 2004 film Howl's Moving Castle features a strong, steampunk-and-magic story and some wonderful vocal talent (Lauren Bacall, Billy Crystal, and a then-not-much-known Christian Bale, among others). Moreover, the visuals are both strikingly creative and totally free of CGI trickery. I'm slowly working my way through Miyazaki'sfilmography and I encourage you to do the same.

Following Howl's, I dipped back into Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop. Wow, does that one just keep getting better. It's not for the kids (neither the TV show or the movie) - it's violent in its action and adult in its themes of loss, sorrow, and trying hard to pretend that you don't care about that stuff in order to just get through one more day - but in its own way, it's glorious. It'll make you both think and sing - and that's not a bad thing.

Also, I've recently seen Monsters University, the latest Pixar-by-way-of-Disney film. Fun stuff and again, some great vocal talent - Billy Crystal again, John Goodman (who can very nearly do no wrong), Helen ("I'm a Dame, but not that kind") Mirren, and in a smarmy role that allows him some scenery-chewing, Nathan Fillion. There's a nice nod to Carrie in here, and it's a good story of misfits forming a family, but really - there's nothing new here. It's old, well-plowed ground, yet a fun ride.

Yes, trust me - I know that the Breaking Bad finale was last night - fear not, thoughts on that are coming for "Walter White Wednesday...

Copyright Notice

Look, I'm flattered if you read something here and like it enough to want to want to rip it off. Or even if you dislike it enough to want to rip it apart. In either case, the content of this blog is mine - I'm responsible for it and you are not to use it without first obtaining permission from me.

Copyright. It's not just a good idea. It's the law.

It really is - see Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution.

K. Dale Koontz

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Who?

K. Dale Koontz may have watched too much television as a child. She learned to count via Sesame Street and first learned that genres could cross-pollinate through M*A*S*H. When she discovered Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the die was cast. In 2008, McFarland published her book Faith and Choice in the Work of Joss Whedon which focused on themes such as redemption, choice, and consequences in Whedon's work up to that point. (She's fairly sure Volume 2 could be written to include Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse, and The Avengers.) She is a founding member of the Whedon Studies Association (a great group of people, but don't mention Twilight. Just sayin'). She has presented original work on the Rossum Corporation in Dollhouse, Kitty Pryde, and Japanese anime. In 2014, she and co-author Ensley F. Guffey worked with ECW Press to publish the critically-acclaimed Wanna Cook? The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad. Her most recent project was to team again with Ensley and ECW to publish A Dream Given Form, which is the only guide to all the canonical works in the Babylon 5 universe. That book is currently available for preorder and will be released in September of 2017. Dale is available for speaking engagements and only occasionally uses puppets in her presentations.

What?

I have long been interested in storytelling - how we do it, why we do it, and what happens when we mix things up. This interest might be the result of being born and raised in the American South, a region that has long celebrated the involved story over the quick answer. Television - the good stuff, anyway - does this brilliantly. Far from being film's red-headed tacky cousin, good TV lets characters and relationships build slowly and often mixes up genres, so horror is next door to humor and fantasy rubs shoulders with procedurals. This blog focuses on both the "good stuff" being broadcast that catches my fancy (with a special emphasis on Babylon 5, since that's the book that's in the process of being written right now) as well as film. The films are usually new releases being watched for TV19's weekly Meet Me at the Movies, although I reserve the right to veer off into classics and under-appreciated gems as well. Older posts cover what my introduction to film class was up to - currently, I'm not teaching that course, but who knows what the future may hold.